The Ring of Water
by J.J.M. Fisher
Summary: Our world was changed the instant the four strangers stepped from the Ring of Water. Vachyllon, son of the Supreme Alderman, seems quite intrigued by them... but can they be trusted? Status: Unfinished.
1. Chapter 1: In the Garden of Water

**Author's Note:** This was a fun little sketch I began writing one night and continued to work on now and then. It is currently unfinished, but if I feel motivated, I may add more to it.

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**The Ring of Water**

**Chapter 1: In the Garden of Water**

It was the first day of autoem when the strangers came to us through the great, metal ring. It had been centuries since the portal had been used last, and all knowledge of how it operated was soon lost to my people. The majority of my people believed that the stories surrounding the portal, the Ring of Water, were mere legends and the portal itself erected to transform these myths into a factual history.

Yet there were some who believed that the stories spoke true of a time in our distant history where the Water Ring was used as a wonderful doorway into other worlds and people traveled freely. These individuals were few in number and kept their beliefs secret or risk exile from the prefecture of their birth. Once branded as an exile, no other prefecture would accept that poor soul as a denizen and he or she would be reduced to the status of a thrall.

My father, and his father before him, believed in this manner and secretly disclosed to me this belief when I came of age. So when the fateful day in which the Ring of Water opened once more and strangers came into our lives, I was unusually calm, understanding, and extremely curious of these strangers, four in number, who dressed different, spoke different, and looked different. Though I was not present for their arrival, I learned of it later from Vachyllon, who saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears.

Vachyllon was the son of a supreme alderman, and as such, he was advantaged with broader studies and privileges than the offspring of the denizen. Each morning at sunrise, Vachyllon would leave his father's house and walk to the neighboring prefecture of Deluge. There he would spend the day as a preceptor, teaching the sons of aldermen, alongside the best preceptors in this region, amidst the Garden of Water, where the portal was located.

It was after the midday when the metal ring began to make a noise that none, not even the well-studied preceptors, had heard before and lights suddenly appeared on its engraved surface. With a rush similar to a sluice, inside of the metal ring a shimmering substance that appeared to be water suddenly appeared. The students stood in amazement and the preceptors quivered in startlement as four strangers stepped from the water and it abruptly vanish once more, leaving the strangers in the Garden of Water.

The strangers, Vachyllon told me, were dressed in dark green garments with adornments of a material he did not recognize. They carried metal objects in their hands and wore strange items on their heads, wrists, and feet. For a long while, the pupils and the preceptors stood staring quietly at the strangers, until Vachyllon felt that some manner of etiquette should be observed.

Being of the highest of rank among our people present in the Garden of Water, he felt it was his obligation to offer the strangers the proper respect. He approached the four strangers and greeted them as he would an alderman, with honor and respect, yet the strangers did not understand him and conversed in a strange language amongst themselves. After much conversing, the smallest of the three men responded to Vachyllon's greeting in our language, though broken, hesitant, and partially mispronounced.

Vachyllon learned from this man that the strangers were wayfarers from a distant land that traveled to seek knowledge from the societies of others so to better their own people. They were peaceful, the man told him, and meant our people no harm or alarm. Vachyllon decided it would be best to bring the strangers before his father, who was the supreme alderman of the southern prefectures, and thus invited the four strangers to his home.

I was tending my father's flocks in the meadows along the way when Vachyllon and the strangers approached. Vachyllon's return was earlier than it should have been, arousing within me curiosity. Leaving the precious sheep in the undisputable protection of my father's two canines, I took hold of my staff and went to greet Vachyllon at the way, as was my custom every eve. Vachyllon was attempting to understand the man who spoke some of our language when I arrived, but he was pleased at my presence. He greeted me warmly, despite the presence of the strangers, by gripping my shoulders gently in his hands and planting a kiss on both of my cheeks and my forehead.

"Good eve, Vachyllon," I greeted in return by closing my right fist and lying it over my heart. My eyes were quickly drawn to the strangers. I had never before seen people such as they, but it was interest and curiosity, not fear, that compelled my attention. "Who are these visitors you bring from Deluge Prefecture?"

"My Roani, these are wayfarers from the Ring of Water itself!" Vachyllon then explained to me how the strangers had come to our land through the portal. He indicated the smallest of the men, "And this preceptor can speak some of our language, though the rest do not. I am bringing them before my father, for he will know how to understand them better than I. You are fast on your feet, you will give my father a fair warning of our guests."

I gave Vachyllon a solemn look, torn between the intolerable desire to obey his wishes and the overwhelming sense of duty to the work my father had entrusted to me. After an agonizing moment of inner uncertainty, I was able to speak aloud.

"I must not leave Father's flock unattended, Vachyllon."

"Are you sheep-herder?" the smallest stranger suddenly asked, his brow creased with deliberation. His accent was strong and his pronunciation was not accurate, but I understood him well.

I turned to him in surprise and then nodded. "Yes, my family's caste is to tend the flocks." After answering the stranger wearily, I pleaded with Vachyllon. "Vachyllon, you know that I cannot leave Father's flock, he depends solely on me now."

The corners of Vachyllon's lips were turned up in the rare expression that he reserved only for me. An amused chuckled resounded from his throat as he leaned forward. He kissed my forehead again, which halted any other statements from me.

"Roanilleen, the canines will guard the flock until you return. Do not argue with me. Now go," he ordered, though not unkindly. He removed my staff from my hands and laid it aside the way.


	2. Chapter 2: A Changing Tide

**Chapter 2: A Changing Tide**

With one last look at Vachyllon, I turned on my heels and ran down the way towards the prefecture. My bare feet were quick on the well-worn path, and soon I entered the sole gate of the prefecture. The path widened into a road and I quickly made my way through the orderly buildings towards the center, the location of the houses of the aldermen and alderwomen. The largest and finest of these edifices belonged to Vachyllon's father; it stood four levels with two towers on either side reaching another three levels skyward. There was a stonewall surrounding the house and its magnificent gardens, and I stopped my sprint only when I reached this private gate.

At the gate, the path changed from the dirt of the road to neat, white cobblestones, which matched the white stone of the house, and the pavement was painful to run on. I entered at a walk and went to the large, double main doors. A thrall, dressed in nice, yet plain, black garments, answered my summonses. I told him that Vachyllon would be arriving shortly with four strangers from the Ring of Water, and that the alderman must be informed immediately. The thrall nodded his shaven head and vanished with no farther acknowledgement to relay the information to his master.

I turned from the closed doors and left the house grounds to return to my father's flock in the meadows.

As I approached the gate from within, Vachyllon and the strangers were approaching from without. The older of the men was gazing about at the high prefecture wall with a weary look while the other man, a man of darker skin with a strange gold marking upon his forehead, calmly looked around at the denizens and thralls that stared with quiet awe at them. The fourth stranger, a woman, was also looking around, but her blue eyes lingered on me as I stopped by Vachyllon and the stranger who spoke with him.

"I thank you, my Roani," Vachyllon said with a pleased smile. He kissed my forehead to show his great pleasure, and I could not help but smile in return. "I have sent a thrall, a young boy, to lead your father's flock back to his house. I wish for you to join us in my father's house this eve."

"Vachyllon—" I attempted to persuade him of the notion. I was not fit to attend a dinner at the supreme alderman's home, as I had spent the entire day in the meadow with the flock. However, he would not be swayed, and his decision stood firm.

"You will, and that is final. Come!" Vachyllon took my arm, and we walked through the prefecture. The stranger resumed his conversation with Vachyllon.

"What did you call the…ah, _doorway_?" the stranger asked. He brushed his brown hair from his forehead.

"We call the portal—the doorway—the Ring of Water," Vachyllon provided amiably.

"I saw that the Ring of Water was placed in a garden of some type. Is it used often?"

"No. The doorway has been closed for hundreds of years, and some of our people now believe that the stories around it were mere legend and it, being a monument to the legends, had no real power. Your arrival to our lands will cause some tension among the aldermen and alderwomen, if not panic among the denizens."

Lines appeared on the stranger's forehead once more, which interested me as I watched his face contort. "I do not know…these words…_aldermen_? _denizens_?"

"Our society is made up of levels: the highest is the aldermen and alderwomen, then elite, then denizens, and lastly thralls. The aldermen are fewest in number because of their great importance and precise lineage, and denizens the largest."

Vachyllon's voice was calm as he explained our society in simple, childlike terms to the stranger, who nodded his head and spoke rapidly in a strange, harsh sounding language to his three companions. The oldest man responded sharply, his eyes constantly surveying the buildings and people around us.

I listened to all though I could not in any way comprehend what was said amongst them. Before the stranger could ask more questions of Vachyllon, we reached his father's house and were greeted by the same thrall that I spoke to, as well as two more, a man and a woman.

"Mist'r, the supreme alderman requested your presence in his study," the shaven thrall spoke respectfully to Vachyllon as he gave a servile bow. The entire time his eyes and the eyes of the other thralls remained on the stone flooring. "And he has requested that the guests freshen up before dinner."

Vachyllon nodded and turned to the preceptor stranger. "Before we can meet with my father, you must freshen up. If you," he gestured to the three men and then to the male thrall in a simple blue garment, "would follow the thrall to a proper chamber, and you," he gestured to the woman and indicated the female thrall in green.

The man translated Vachyllon's instructions, and the older stranger spoke up quickly. The translator appeared frustrated as he directed his speech to Vachyllon again, and his brow creased deeper. "We were wanting…to speak with the alderman… soon," he said to Vachyllon.

"Yes, soon, but you cannot see him wearing those garments and immediately after journeying. What host would I be if I allowed such dishonor to be shown, not only to my father, but to you?" Vachyllon demanded. His voice reverberated off the polished walls of the foyer and the oldest of the strangers' raised one eyebrow, a feat I had never seen preformed before. It was apparent to the strangers that Vachyllon's mind would not be changed.

Vachyllon tilted his head slightly to one side and indicated the thralls once more. "Now go."

The strangers reluctantly obeyed, and the three men were led up the staircase by the male thrall. The woman waited patiently with the other as Vachyllon turned to me. His gray eyes were bright with excitement, emotions he rarely made evident, as he laid his hands gently on my shoulders.

"My Roani, this is an important event, and I felt it was only appropriate to include you," he explained mellifluously. "The presence of the wayfarers has proven your great-grandfather's ideas and statements of the Ring of Water to be truth, and perhaps the wrong done to your family can be made right." He leaned down and kissed my brow, eyes sparkling with pleasure. "Now go join my father's guest and remove the smell of sheep from yourself."

"You have told me before that the smell of sheep is pleasing to you," I teased him softly. His angular face brightened with an amused smile, and his gray eyes seemed to grow just a shade lighter.

"So it does; however, my father does not find such perfume as pleasurable as I, my Roani."

I bowed my head and crossed the spacious foyer to join the woman and the thrall.


	3. Chapter 3: Alone With a Wayfarer

**Chapter 3: Along With a Wayfarer**

Quietly the thrall led us up the same stairs as the men had gone, but down a different corridor to a large, private washing chamber. Other thralls, all women dressed in identical green tunics as our guide and hair cropped to the appropriate chin length, were heating the water in the stone tubs and laying out apposite attire on long, cushioned benches of gold inlayed wood.

As we entered the chambers, the stranger and I were immediately surrounded by the thralls and guided over to the tubs of warm water. Their hands removed my clothing, and though I felt discomfort at being unclothed in front of the stranger, I steeled my own emotions and calmly stepped into the tub of water. The stranger, I noticed, was giving loud protests to the thralls as they attempted to undress her.

"Let her be," I ordered the thralls, and they stepped from the stranger without delay, though a few of the older thralls gave me weary, skeptical glances. I took a circle of soap in my hand as I added firmly and casually, "If she wishes to bathe, then she will do so herself."

"But, miss, it is the supreme alderman's orders," the oldest thrall, a woman with thinning gray hair and a wrinkled face, replied meekly. I heard the questioning beneath her polite tone, though. It was obvious that the thralls knew of me as well as my family history, which made them hesitant to obey my words. I forced myself not to sigh, which was a sign of resign. I had to chose my next words very carefully to satisfy that intensely loyal thralls to leave the stranger and I.

"Vachyllon commanded that I take responsibility for this woman, and you have my word that she will be dressed suitably for the supreme alderman. Now please leave us."

The thrall graciously bowed, having lost the battle. "Very well."

As the absence of the title of respect hung in the air, the thralls quietly filed from the room and closed the door behind them. I was alone in the chamber with the female stranger, and my heart began to race in my bosom. I did not look at the stranger as I began to lather the soap to clean my skin, for I wished her to be as comfortable in my presence as she would allow. The scent of sheep, grass, and the meadows was quickly leaving my body, having been replaced with a lovely lavender perfume from the soap. When the woman did not undress and bathe after a few minutes, I gazed over at her curiously to study her.

The woman was slightly taller than I, and her golden hair had been cropped as short as the hair of the thrall, though she carried herself like an alderwoman. It was strange to see a woman of clear authority with nearly no hair, as all women of the alder, elite, and denizen castes refrained from trimming their hair from birth. My own hair, though it was dark auburn in color, hung loose passed my waist in the style of the unbound women of the denizen and higher classes. The stranger's eyes were also peculiar to me, being of the same color as the midday sky in midsummer; my people had no such variation in our own eye color.

She, on the other hand, was studying the tapestry on the polished white wall.

"I am Roanilleen," I introduced myself. My voice startled the stranger, and she spun around to face me, her expression one of surprise. One of the objects she and the other strangers carried was pointed in my direction, but then she let it drop to her side. I swallowed and pointed at my chest. "Roanilleen."

"Major Samantha Carter," the woman responded, pointing at herself. I attempted to repeat the long, harsh word that she spoke, but failed when my tongue refused to repeat it accurately. She smiled a non-threatening expression. "Samantha."

"Sah-man-thah," I repeated slowly. She nodded, spoke something, and laughed softly. I pointed back at myself. "Roanilleen." This time she failed to pronounce my name correctly, so I decided to offer a simpler name, by which only a few, namely my father and Vachyllon, called me. "Roani."

"Roe-annie?"

I nodded. It was pleasant to be communicating with the stranger—Sah-man-thah—despite the language barrier between us. I gestured with an upwards palm to the empty bath. "Sah-man-thah, you must bathe." She shook her head, so I insisted. After she refused again, I decided that she wished privacy if she was to bathe. I finished my own bathe quickly, stood, and wrapped myself in a soft drying cloth. I then gestured to the bath and repeated, "Sah-man-thah, you must bathe."

Without another word, I stepped behind a dressing screen. As I dried the dampness from my body, I heard the woman enter the tub of water and begin to wash. Though outwardly I was a statue of calmness, inwardly I was quivering with apprehension. I licked my lips and began to sing slowly a lullaby I remembered from my mother when I was but a young child; I knew the gentle music would soothe my spirits, and, perchance, it might soothe the stranger called Sah-man-thah as well.

As I sang, I reviewed the clothing that the thralls had laid out for us. Though the two gowns were both white in color, each was decorating with differing designs. I took a hold of the one that was for Sah-man-thah and went to give it to her. She had just wrapped herself with a drying cloth as I approached, but she shook her head, short gold hair bouncing, when her eyes saw the dress. She indicated her original clothing, the green and black strange garments, but I shook my own head.

"No, you cannot wear those to a meeting with the supreme alderman," I told her, though I knew that she could not understand my words. Mayhap she would comprehend the meaning from my expression and gestures.

I gazed at her for a long moment, studying her angular features, golden hair, and lithe body. She was slightly taller than I and more slender. I decided that she would not be relaxed in a gown, but perchance slacks instead, similar to her original attire. I went to the large wardrobe and pulled open the wooden doors.

Among the numerous gowns were also slacked garments, though the long, flowing legs gave the deception of being a gown. I took from the wardrobe a green garment for Sah-man-thah, and I choose a similarly designed blue garment for myself, so that my clothing would compliment hers.

All the while, Sah-man-thah was standing by the tubs of water watching me with her strange blue eyes.

"Wear this, if it please you, Sah-man-thah," I said politely as I handed her the new garments. She reluctantly accepted, with an inclination of her head. I turned my back and began to dress in my own apparel.

The garment was spun from the soft silk of cornhusks and dyed blue with a certain type of weed that grew abundantly in the woods to the north. It had a sloping neckline, no sleeves, and was tight around the chest and waist. It then flared at the legs, giving the pleasant illusion that it was a gown and not slacks.

After I was dressed, I looked back at Sah-man-thah. She was securing the strange black belt that held the metal objects to her waist. If she was to wear a belt, then I would add a belt to my attire so to make the addition acceptable at dinner. After rummaging through the wardrobe, I found a thick black belt, though it was not identical to hers, and secured it to my waist.

"Come, Sah-man-thah," I said with a smile after we both were prepared.

I gestured to the door, and she nodded. Together we left the chamber and returned to the large foyer on the ground floor.


	4. Chapter 4: My People Keep No Secrets

**Chapter 4: My People Keep No Secrets**

The men were present when we arrived, standing together at the bottom of the stairs talking amongst themselves, but Vachyllon had not yet returned from his meeting with his father. Sah-man-thah joined her companions immediately, and they greeted her in their harsh language. I did not want to appear overly curious as the strangers conversed and so stood apart with my hands clasped before me.

The stranger who spoke our language hesitantly approached me, though I noticed the oldest man seemed to have commanded it of him. Perhaps the oldest was their alderman?

"Excuse me," the preceptor said, and I turned my eyes up to view his face properly. I was shocked to find myself staring deep into eyes the color of the rich, russet loam of the southern forests. "I want to ask you…a few questions, if that is acceptable."

"My people keep no secrets," I responded with a polite nod of my head. "You may inquire anything you wish, and if I am privileged to such knowledge, I will answer."

"What connection…do you have to Vachyllon and the supreme alderman?"

I smiled gently. "My great-grandfather was a prime elite who made his belief in the truth of the ancient stories and the Ring of Water known to the aldermen and alderwomen of the northern prefectures. The others did not share his views, and he was swiftly exiled from the north.

When he and his family arrived in this prefecture, the supreme alderman of the southern prefectures, who secretly held the same views, took pity on the exiled man and accepted the entire family as thralls. It is a rule in every prefecture that a man's crime will be forgotten after two generations of servitude, and so my father was given his freedom when he became of age. As a denizen, he continued to be beholden to the supreme alderman's family as a tender of sheep."

"So your father…works for…the supreme alderman?" the stranger asked hesitantly. "He tends the supreme alderman's sheep?"

"The sheep belong to my father, a freedom gift from the supreme alderman on the day he was given his freedom, and it is out of gratitude my father supplies the supreme alderman with meat and wool from the flock."

"And you have no family other than your father?"

"My mother died birthing me; therefore, I am the sole child borne unto my father."

My eyes flickered from the russet-eyed preceptor to the sky-eyed woman standing back with the other two wayfaring companions. The dark skinned wayfarer with the strange golden mark upon his forehead had even darker eyes that the preceptor, but I could not distinguish the color of the leader's eyes, as they were continuously roving.

"Tell me," I spoke to the preceptor suddenly. "Do all your people have their own eye color?"

The man seemed startled by my question, and I peered up at him intently, awaiting the answer calmly. "We have many colors: green, blue…brown, hazel…others. Do you not have variety?"

"No, everyone has the same gray eyes here, except for the aldermen and alderwomen," I replied amiably.

"I do not understand…" His face contorted into a grimace of perplexity. "How can they have different eyes than the rest of the people? Vachyllon has gray eyes."

"He is presently not supreme alderman, though he will become it when his father steps down," I said. "The aldermen and alderwomen have gray eyes except when they are in Council or giving a public address. At those times, their eyes are gold to signify that they are our protectors and benefactors."

The preceptor seemed strangely alarmed at my simple statement, though I did not understand what could have distressed him. After hearing my statement, he turned immediately to his companions and began to speak in the rapid, course language of which I comprehended nil. I watched the faces of the wayfarers passively, wondering why their muscles had stiffened and they appeared suddenly apprehensive. They held their strange adornments tightly in their hands and cast weary glances about the foyer.

The leader of the wayfarers ordered something in a sharp tone I had never heard before. The preceptor nervously ran his fingers through his brown hair, trying to word his new question as politely as he could in his broken speech. "How long has your people lived here?" he inquired after a moment of thought.

I blinked slowly at the question. "My people have always been here."

"No…I mean…did your people come to this land through the Ring of Water?" I shook my head and repeated my statement. The stranger paused to think before asking another: "Do any of…the ancient stories…speak of strangers from the Ring of Water who…claimed to be gods?"

I shook my head. "There is only one god, the creator, and he did not come through the Ring of Water."

"Has there ever been any…imposters?"

"No. The stories do not tell of any people who came through the portal posing as the creator."

He seemed to be searching for something, though what it happened to be boggled my mind. "No time in your history…have your people encountered another race of people…noticeably evil?" I did not comprehend the meaning of the question, and I shook my head. "Taken from this world by strangers?" I shook my head again. "Had battles against a different people?" I shook my head.

The preceptor of the strangers gazed at me with an uncertain expression on his face.

"Why did your people forget the Ring of Water?"

I began to respond to his inquiry when Vachyllon, clad in new attire of pale blue that complimented his black hair and slate gray eyes, arrived from a side hall. He draped his arm around my shoulders protectively yet gave the stranger an amiable smile.

"You have not been barraging my dear Roani with inquiries, have you, Dahn-yell?" he teasingly questioned in his deep voice. The stranger shook his head, and Vachyllon looked down at me with a pleasant expression. "My Roani, I have failed to introduce you properly to our guests from a distant land through the portal. This is Dahn-yell Jahk-suhn, a preceptor of his land. Dahn-yell, this is Roanilleen, my favored."

Vachyllon indicated for the small man, Dahn-yell Jahk-suhn, to continue the introductions of his companions. The three other strangers hesitantly approached after Dahn-yell spoke to them.

He gestured to the oldest man. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill." The man remained rigid in form and facial features.

Dahn-yell gestured to the woman. "This is Major Samantha Carter." The woman inclined her head slightly.

He then indicated the third stranger, the man of darker complexion with a strange marking upon his forehead. "This is Teal'c, a _ja'fa_ from a land different from ours." The jafa turned his head to one side and raised a thin, arching eyebrow, while his hands remained firmly on his strange ornamental staff.

"I do not understand the terms which you used, Dahn-yell Jahk-suhn," I admitted meekly to the stranger. I looked up at Vachyllon for his consent at my boldness. He kissed my forehead in approval, and I ventured to ask a question of my own. "What is a _cohl-ho-nyll_, _mah-yehr_, and _jah-fah_?"

"Oh." Dahn-yell glanced at his companions before looking at me. "_Colonel_ and _major_ are titles denoting rank."

"So Jahk Oh-Neel is an alderman and Sah-man-thah Cahr-tehr is an alderwomen in your lands?" I inquired.

"Well, our land has hundreds of ranks, many more than your land, but, yes, Jack O'Neal is the leader of this group," Dahn-yell explained vaguely, but I nodded as if I understood.

"Let us not stand in the foyer any longer," Vachyllon ordered. "I must bring you and your companions before my father, the supreme alderman of the southern prefectures. Follow me."

He took my left arm and proceeded to lead us down the corridor towards a great dining room.


End file.
